From the Santa Monica Mirror:
Officials in Santa Monica are considering abandoning the Los Angeles Homeless Services Authority (LAHSA) to seek federal funding independently to combat homelessness. The potential change came into question after a grim presentation to the city council on May 10, where it was reported that the agency is looking to cut housing vouchers and other allocations to the City, partly over a dispute of tracking data.
Representatives of the L.A. County Board of Supervisors and the United Way addressed the council about the United Way’s Home for Good Plan, the LAHSA Continuum of Care, and Veterans to Home – Project 60. Santa Monica officials indicated that their high success rates with addressing homelessness in recent years might preclude the City from funds it has used to get those results under LAHSA’s new funding criteria.
Santa Monica’s Human Services Administrator Setareh Yavari painted an ugly picture about LAHSA’s funding priorities and indicated it might be time for the City to consider alternatives to partnering with the organization to address homelessness locally and regionally.
“We expressed our concern regarding LAHSA’s new funding criteria, which resulted in the disqualification of the City’s two requests for additional permanent housing vouchers,” Yavari told the council. “This policy, which is LAHSA’s approach to fair share, penalizes those jurisdictions, such as Santa Monica, for investing in solutions rather than incentivizing communities to step up.”
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